The Fastest Age

Mark, 5-7 hours is about right for what time is available for me. When I started swimming Masters 3.5 years ago, I was way behind the other swimmers. MAny were former age group swimmers. It took time, but there is only one in the group I cannot pass and he is a foot taller than me, and I threaten him every day. Now granted we don't have a real competive group, most are not competing, just there for fitness. But I progressed in several ways. I improved my water conditioning. I was in good condition for a "fat person", did lots of land based cardio and weights, but we all know swimming is a different animal. How many runners try to swim and are shocked at how hard it is! My big improvement came this past year. Two things happened, I had a friend really look at my freestyle and "fix" a lot of my flaws, although they are still there, I am more conscious about them, and I dropped 35 pounds. Since the process of improving my stroke and losing weight were happening during the same time period, Dec-02 thru May-03 I cannot say which had more affect. The improvement was dramatic especially in distance. I did a timed 1650 in November 02 in a little over 31 minutes(whew speedster:). By May I had it down to 29 minutes, now I am stuck at 27 minutes and until I fix more flaws in my free it will probably stay there. BTW these are practice times, never raced this and don't WANT to.

Mark, 5-7 hours is about right for what time is available for me. When I started swimming Masters 3.5 years ago, I was way behind the other swimmers. MAny were former age group swimmers. It took time, but there is only one in the group I cannot pass and he is a foot taller than me, and I threaten him every day. Now granted we don't have a real competive group, most are not competing, just there for fitness. But I progressed in several ways. I improved my water conditioning. I was in good condition for a "fat person", did lots of land based cardio and weights, but we all know swimming is a different animal. How many runners try to swim and are shocked at how hard it is! My big improvement came this past year. Two things happened, I had a friend really look at my freestyle and "fix" a lot of my flaws, although they are still there, I am more conscious about them, and I dropped 35 pounds. Since the process of improving my stroke and losing weight were happening during the same time period, Dec-02 thru May-03 I cannot say which had more affect. The improvement was dramatic especially in distance. I did a timed 1650 in November 02 in a little over 31 minutes(whew speedster:). By May I had it down to 29 minutes, now I am stuck at 27 minutes and until I fix more flaws in my free it will probably stay there. BTW these are practice times, never raced this and don't WANT to.